Georgia school shooter questioned by FBI over threats a year ago: Here’s what we know

Amidst the mourning of the families of the four people killed in a school shooting in Winder, Georgia, The authorities are investigating this Thursday the motives that the 14-year-old minor had for committing it, while the desolation and indignation grows due to the age of the aggressor and because he had already been on the radar of US authorities for a possible internet threat.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (OIG) on Wednesday identified the shooter at Apalachee High School as Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student, will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.

At a news conference, OIG Director Chris Hosey said the suspect used a “semi-automatic rifle-style” weapon and that “a lot of evidence” is being recovered and analyzed as part of the investigation, but There is no indication that he had an accomplice or that other schools are at risk.

For its part, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in X that Both the shooter and his father were questioned last year following an investigation into online threats about a shooting. at an unspecified school, which were accompanied by photographs of weapons.

The agency said it received anonymous tips in May 2023 about those threats and that its investigation led to a “13-year-old male” who “is the same subject in custody related to the Apalachee High School shootings.”

The FBI commissioned an interrogation of the suspect to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, but The teenager denied being responsible for the threats, while his father said he kept hunting weapons in the house but his son “did not have access to them without supervision.”

According to the FBI, there was no “probable cause” for an arrest or enforcement action, but the sheriff’s office alerted local schools to “continuously monitor” the youth.

Wednesday’s attack has reopened a debate in the United States about the possible charges of negligence that parents or guardians of young suspects of crimes may face by allowing or failing to ensure that they do not have access to weapons. It also has raised questions about the need to take threats more seriously, which authorities often dismiss due to lack of evidence.

The Violence Policy Center, a research center on gun violence, also called for “demands” to be given regarding the details of the weapon used and how it was acquired.

‘He told us to run and hide’: Witness accounts

Winder, a town of less than 20,000 people located about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, is now quietly preparing for the funerals of the Two students and two teachers were killed at Apalachee High School, while eight other students and another teacher are recovering from their injuries in hospitals.

Police intervened on Wednesday after receiving emergency calls at around 10:20 a.m. local time.

He cornered us and we all stayed together. Some of my friends were crying.

When confronted by an agent assigned to security at the center, the shooter “realized that if he did not surrender,” the police officer was going to open fire, said Jud Smith, the local sheriff. “He gave up, got on the ground and the officer arrested him,” he added.

Stephanie Folgar, a 17-year-old student, was in class when she heard “loud bangs, like gunshots, in the corridor.” She told AFP that a teacher arrived: “He told us to run to the toilets, to a cupboard, and hide.” “After 15 or 20 minutes the police arrived, they told us we could go out and follow them outside,” she added. She then spent “two or three hours” on a sports field.

Another student, Alexsandra Romero, said that many thought it was a drill. “Until my teacher said, ‘We didn’t get an email.'” Then they started to worry. “She cornered us and we all stayed together. Some of my friends were crying,” she said.

The sheriff said police do not yet know whether the shooter targeted specific people. Meanwhile, Annie Brown, the suspect’s aunt, told the Washington Post that the young man had been begging for help for his mental health for months.

The woman said she “tried from afar to get him help. She said his struggles were exacerbated by a difficult home life. The adults around him failed him,” the American newspaper quoted her as saying.

The victims of the shooting are: a 14-year-old Hispanic boy, Christian Angulo; another African-American boy of the same age, Mason Schermerhorn; and math teachers Christina Irimie, 53, and Richard Aspinwall, 39.

This massacre is the latest in a long list in the United States, where at least 384 mass shootings have been recorded this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive initiative.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and his wife Jill are mourning “the deaths of those whose lives were cut short by senseless gun violence.”

“Students across the country are learning to duck and take cover instead of learning to read and write. We can no longer accept this as normal,” added the president, who has been trying for years to regulate access to firearms.

Colt Gray, the 14-year-old, will face formal charges in court on Friday for four murders, among other charges that have not been disclosed. The shooter in Georgia, the state’s worst school shooting, will also undergo mental and psychological evaluations.